N.Y. paper company chief calls for more logging in the Adirondacks

PAUL POST, The Saratogian

Posted:
05/18/2014 11:06:19 PM EDT

QUEENSBURY, N.Y. - The North Country paper industry is faced with
numerous challenges, including fewer loggers, the addition of large
tracts of land to the state Forest Preserve, where timbering isn't
allowed, and increased environmental regulations.

That's what keynote speaker Deba Mukherjee, Finch Paper LLC president
and CEO, told 250 business and elected leaders gathered Friday at
Warren County Economic Development Corp.'s annual luncheon at Great
Escape Lodge.

Finch, with 625 employees in Warren, Saratoga and Washington counties,
is one of the area's largest private employers.

"The paper industry has undergone tremendous change in the past
decade," Mukherjee said. "Finch has not been immune to these changes.
We are developing a new business model."

Plans call for infrastructure modernization, energy efficiencies and
an expansion of paper converting operations. Mukherjee said the
company has added 40 new customers in the past four months and is
supplying 20 new products to large and small markets.

In a separate venture, Finch last year acquired Saratoga County's
landfill in Northumberland and is expected to start accepting
municipal solid waste there later this year, another source of
revenue. That landfill is adjacent to a sludge landfill where the
company disposes of waste from the papermaking process.

Mukherjee called on banks and financial institutions to give loggers
the funding needed for expensive equipment, and schools to provide
training and encourage people to pursue this type of work.

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In addition to Forest Preserve additions, Mukherjee said land
subdivision has resulted in small parcels, making timber harvesting
more difficult.

But John Sheehan of the Adirondack Council environmental group
defended state forestland policies. In about the past 20 years, the
state has purchased the conservation easement rights to 778,000 acres
in the Adirondacks, which prohibits development, but allows timbering
to continue "in an environmentally responsible way," he said.

In contrast, a newly-released Regional Assessment Report says less
than half that amount - 355,000 acres - has been added to the Forest
Preserve since 1972.

"The state has been very judicious about which new lands it's been
adding to the Forest Preserve," Sheehan said.

Only the most environmentally sensitive areas have been purchased
outright, he said.

Finch spokesman John Brodt said, "This is certainly more advantageous
to the forest products industry when wood continues to come off the
land."

The former Finch Pruyn Co., which became Finch Paper, sold off all
162,000 acres of its Adirondack land holdings to The Nature
Conservancy when new owners bought the company in 2007. The Nature
Conservancy sold 94,000 to a private timber management company. The
agreement allows Finch to continue drawing forest products from that
land for a 20-year period.

The state is in the process of purchasing the remaining 68,000 acres,
which will be added to the Forest Preserve. It includes some of the
Adirondacks' most ecologically important sites such as Hudson River
Gorge and Essex Chain of Lakes.

Historically, about 10 percent of Finch's wood supply came from its
lands in the Adirondacks. The rest is from other sites within a
roughly 100-mile radius, which has been expanding as sources have been
harder to come by.

The luncheon's theme, highlighting the forest product industry's
importance to the North Country, was "Where would we be without wood?"
Representatives of SCA in South Glens Falls, a mill that specializes
in recycled paper products, and Irving Tissue in Fort Edward, which
makes Scotties facial and bath tissue, were also on hand.

The Business Council of New York State President Heather C. Briccetti
said manufacturing jobs on average pay $18,000 per year more than
those in other sectors. The recently adopted state budget features tax
relief for all types of manufacturing including real property tax
credits.

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